On Long Island, many homes have rectangular walkways, where the rectangle is outlined in bricks, and the area within the rectangle is cement.? So if I lived in Long Island, and all the walkways I saw had bricks around the perimeter, might I not assume that although the problem said 54 SQUARE feet of brick, that I might have to find perimeter?? I'm not saying that this is the correct way to interpret a problem, but if SED is giving REAL LIFE APPLICATION - then these kids didn't get a fair shake.

Sharon

And then the thought process is - how could it be a RECTANGULAR walkway if it is around a garden? Aha! Rectangular means it has the shape of a rectangle. Much younger students can tell you that.

And then the thought process is - how could it be a RECTANGULAR walkway if it is around a garden? Aha! Rectangular means it has the shape of a rectangle. Much younger students can tell you that.

For those who think the test should be strictly about math and not reading - part of math is learning problem solving capabilities. Students are not going to use a lot of this in life (as they always tell me) but they do need to learn how to think. Solving math problems is partially a reading test. Students must read and translate English into algebra. I tell them it's another language they are learning.

If they can't read and translate the problems by the time they get to this class, the solution is not dumbing down the test. Go back to the root cause and fix it!******************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this mailing list, email the message* "unsubscribe nysmathab" to majordomo@mathforum.org** Read prior posts and download attachments from the web archives at* http://mathforum.org/kb/forum.jspa?forumID=338*******************************************************************